TURTLE LAKE, Wis. -- What was he supposed to do?It's not a question so much as a challenge. A challenge to anyone who thinks Lenny Miller was wrong to booby-trap his cabin with a shotgun.Three times in eight months, the cabin had been burglarized.His hunting rifles were stolen. His fishing gear, too. And his tackle box. His new chain saw and his leaf blower and his Christmas present, a fillet knife still in its box. His boat had been vandalized. His outhouse trashed. His all-terrain vehicle had been torn apart.

A South River High School senior has been barred from having a firearm for a year, but avoided a criminal conviction Tuesday for having an unloaded shotgun in his car on the school parking lot in February, his lawyer said. Patrick Bryan Mitchell, 18, whose automatic expulsion from the school in Edgewater was protested by students and parents, made no statements before Anne Arundel County District Judge Thomas J. Pryal, who imposed a year's unsupervised probation during which the teenager cannot have a firearm.

The Sun's recent editorial on guns laws ("Resigned to guns," Sept. 25) should have added a picture of Joe Biden and his advice to buy a shotgun from last February. I am sure the victims of the Navy Yard incident would appreciate our vice president's advice. But since it is un-PC to say anything bad about a Democrat, no chance of that happening. Lyle Rescott, Marriottsville

A 16-year-old student was arrested at an Anne Arundel County high school Thursday after police found alcohol and a 12-gauge shotgun in his truck, police said. Police said another student at Southern High School approached a teacher and said the student appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, police said, so administrators brought the 16-year-old into the office. During the conversation, the student told administrators he had driven a truck to school, though he was not authorized to park on campus.

A man pulled a shotgun on an Anne Arundel County police officer after officers were called to a neighborhood dispute, police said. Witnesses said that William Wesley Neall III had been acting erratically most of Thursday, banging on doors and yelling profanities in the 600 block of Belle Dora Court in Arnold, police said. As an officer waited for backup outside Neall's home, he came out pointing a loaded Winchester 12-gauge shotgun at the cop. The officer drew his weapon and ordered Neall, 46, to put his gun down, which he did, according to police.

Maryland State Police say an armed suspect sustained a non-life threatening gunshot wound Monday after he allegedly pointed a shotgun at a trooper responding to an attempted suicide call at the man's northern Harford County residence. The wounded man has been identified as John E. Murphy, 52, of the 4100 block of Norrisville Road in the White Hall ZIP Code. The house is near the Madonna crossroads. According to a state police news release issued shortly after 9 p.m. Monday, Murphy was receiving treatment for a gunshot wound to the shoulder at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.

An employee at Mikie's restaurant in Glen Burnie pulled a shotgun from the hands of a man attempting to rob the restaurant on Wednesday morning and struck him with the weapon several times until the man fled, according to Anne Arundel County Police. Officers responded to a report of an attempted robbery at the restaurant in the 1200 block of Crain Highway about 6:16 a.m., police said. Once there, they were told that an unknown man had entered the restaurant with the shotgun and confronted the male employee.

A 16-year-old student was arrested at an Anne Arundel County high school Thursday after police found alcohol and a 12-gauge shotgun in his truck, police said. Police said another student at Southern High School approached a teacher and said the student appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, police said, so administrators brought the 16-year-old into the office. During the conversation, the student told administrators he had driven a truck to school, though he was not authorized to park on campus.

George Anderson of Washington County asks: I sighted-in my shotgun two years ago. I take good care of it, clean it and keep it stored in a closet. Should I spend the money and time to go to the range again this year? Outdoors Girl can image a beautiful buck, 8-point rack, walking directly toward your tree stand. You can hardly believe your eyes when it stops just 25 yards off and turns slightly to give you a clean shot. Visions of venison filling your freezer dance in your head.

A 21-year-old Edgewood woman was killed Sunday night when she was hit by a shotgun blast as her boyfriend and another man struggled for the weapon, state police in Bel Air said.Kimberly Dawn Nichols, 21, was at the home she shared with her boyfriend, Stephen Michael Tresnak, 22, when Mr. Tresnak got into an argument with Jason Jude Maltese, 26, of Elrino Street in East Baltimore, police said.About 9 p.m., Mr. Tresnak got a shotgun, and the two men began to struggle over it. The gun went off, striking Ms. Nichols, police said.

An 18-year-old South River High School student was charged as an adult Friday on a weapons charge after a shotgun was found in his vehicle at the school, Anne Arundel County Police said. Police said the student had apparently been hunting previously and did not remove the 12-gauge shotgun from the car afterward. No students or staff were threatened with the shotgun, police said. Patrick Bryan Mitchel II, of Edgewater, faces charges related to the possession of a weapon after the gun and several loose rounds of ammunition were found.

When Darion Marcus Aguilar of College Park fatally shot two store employees at The Mall in Columbia and then killed himself, authorities said he did so with a Mossberg 500, a Connecticut-made pump-action shotgun that has been on the U.S. market since 1961. A 19-year-old with no criminal record, Aguilar bought the weapon in a legal December transaction from a Montgomery County gun store. The incident has caused some to take second look at the effectiveness of the high-profile gun control measures the state passed last year.

Darion Marcus Aguilar was familiar with The Mall in Columbia. He hung around outside, smoking with small groups, police said. The revelation Tuesday provided the first solid link between Aguilar and the shopping center at the core of this Howard County community, though police say they still don't know what motivated him to kill skate shop employees Brianna Benlolo, 21, and Tyler Johnson, 25, before turning a shotgun on himself. Howard County police said they have reviewed Aguilar's journal and are examining his cellphone and a home computer, but have found nothing that connects him with the victims.

The Sun's recent editorial on guns laws ("Resigned to guns," Sept. 25) should have added a picture of Joe Biden and his advice to buy a shotgun from last February. I am sure the victims of the Navy Yard incident would appreciate our vice president's advice. But since it is un-PC to say anything bad about a Democrat, no chance of that happening. Lyle Rescott, Marriottsville

Maryland's gun laws are widely considered tougher than those of neighboring Virginia, but they would not have stopped the Navy Yard shooter from buying a shotgun and walking out of a store with it the same day. Authorities said Aaron Alexis' Monday shooting spree that killed 12 in Washington began with a 12-gauge, 870 Remington pump-action shotgun. He had purchased it two days before from a Virginia gun shop. If Alexis - who police said had brushes with the law and showed signs of mental illness - had visited a Maryland gun store instead, he would have been able to walk out with the same gun. Most of Maryland's strict laws about background checks, waiting periods and purchase limits apply only to regulated firearms, which in most cases means handguns and assault rifles, Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley said.

Anne Arundel County police said they found three unloaded shotguns in a student's car in the parking lot of Southern High School in Harwood on Thursday morning. The guns were found in their cases, along with ammunition and a hunting knife, and police determined that the student had been shooting the guns with a friend on a farm recently and never took them out of the car. The 17-year-old boy was charged with a juvenile citation for possession of a deadly weapon on school property, police said.

A Baltimore man lost his left arm last night after he reached under a sofa bed for a loaded sawed-off shotgun and it discharged, striking him in the shoulder.City police said Alexander Jeffery Clayton Ceruti, 20, of the 1800 block of E. 30th St. near Clifton Park, was in serious condition at Johns Hopkins Hospital today after doctors amputated his left arm. Investigators said the shooting was accidental.Police said Ceruti was in a house in the 3900 block of Old York Road in Waverly shortly before 10 p.m. with some friends.

I'm not sure if this is a tale of distracted parenting or car safety, but either one works. My 10-year-old son -- who is about one inch shorter than me, if that -- has been begging to ride shotgun for quite some time. It's not a daily question, but almost. "But so-and-so gets to ride in the front seat!" And it's true, I see many of his friends up front. I want to joke that I guess I just love him more than they love their kids but I'm afraid he'll repeat it and the joke part will get lost in translation.